By Myles Tanzer 10/17/12 2:16pm

startup rundown

Jon Carin rocks (Photo: wikipedia.org)

Startup News: Braintree Gets a $35 M. Boost, TED Gets Trippy, and Real Estate Gets Gamified

Brain Boost This morning, Braintree, a Chicago-based online payments company announced, a $35 million series B round of funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). By investing in Braintree, new investors join Accel Partners and others and the company’s total funding is now set at $70 million.

Braintree acquired the beloved bill splitting app, Venmo, back in August and has kept it independent so far. Braintree allows businesses to accept payments from costumers, but Venmo allows consumers to make payments to anyone. It’s a natural fit for both parties.

Braintree’s client list includes fast-growing startups like Uber, Fab.com, Airbnb, who use it, “through periods of rapid growth without disruption to their ability to accept payments,” the company said in an email to Betabeat. They also name-checked competitors like Stripe and PayPal, noting that one “big difference is that merchants receive their funds typically in two days with Braintree, vs. seven days with Stripe.” Read More

By Jessica Roy 5/23/12 11:51am

XX in Tech

Ms. Koo (twitter.com)

The Perfect Ratio: New Hackathon Brings Ladies and Gents Together to Build Cool Products

If you’ve ever been to a hackathon, you’re probably well-acquainted with the fact that the majority of attendees and participants are usually dudes. The paucity of gender diversity in tech is a controversial issue, but one that probably won’t be solved by responding to the over-saturation of Y chromosomes with an all-female hackathon. That’s where Hack’n Jill comes in.

Sponsored by Appnexus and hosted at the company’s headquarters, Hack’n Jill is a weekend-long summer hackathon that will bring together 50 men and 50 women in an effort to “create an environment where both genders feel welcome to build cool things together.” Read More